EUPHORBIACEiE. 



221 



MANIHOT, riuiu. Flowers mona'cious and apetalous ; calyx of the 

 stauiiiiate flowers 5-parted and imbricated; stamens 10, in two series: 

 filaments free, slender ; anthers attached by their backs to the fila- 

 ments; cells along the sides covered with cracks, running lengthwise 

 calyx of the pistillate flowers o-parted, deciduous; receptacle below 

 the base of the ovary sometimes furnished with stamen-like processes ; 

 style 3-lobed ; ovary :5-valved, 8-celled ; ovules 1 in each cell. Fruit in 

 a capsule, 5-berried; berries 2-valved ; seeds smooth. Leaves alter- 

 nate, digitate; stipules small, deciduous; inflorescence a branched 

 raceme, terminal or axillary. Fertile flowers occupy the lower i)art of 

 the raceme. Root fusiform and fleshy. 



M. utilissima, rolil. (Tapioca. Bitter Cassava.) Stem sleuder, 5 to 9 feet 

 high, woody below, branched above, smooth, bark whitish. Leaves large, ou 

 loug purpiisli foot-stalks, warty near 

 the base, falling off early ; stipules nar- 

 row, triangular, acute, smooth, falling, 

 blade divided into 3 to 7 oblong, acute, 

 narrow lobes, 2 to 4 inches loug, smooth 

 above, glaucous beneath. Flowers 

 monoecious, in axillary or terminal 

 racemes; perianths bell-shaped, deeply 

 cut into 5 acute segments ; pistillate 

 flowers, larger and occupying the lower 

 part of the raceme ; ovary surrountied at 

 the base by a ring-like receptacle, 

 smooth and purple, 3-celled, an ovule 

 in each cell ; style short, surmounted by 

 3 stigmas. Fruit on short stalks ; 

 fruit-vessel half an inch long, globular, 

 glabrous, embossed with protuberances, 

 ()-winged, .3-celled, separating into 3 

 berry-like tlivisions, with a single seed 

 in each, one eighth of an inch long, 

 oblong, smooth, and gray. Hoot fleshy, 

 3 feet long and 6 to 9 inches in 

 diameter, weighing 10 to 30 pounds, fusiform 

 milky juice. 



There are 30 well-marked varieties of this species grown in Brazil. 



Geography. — The home of the tapioca plant is tropical and subtropical 

 South America, whence it has been carried to other warm countries, as 

 southern Asia and western Africa. 



Etymology. — The history of the names of the tapioca plants is somewhat 

 obscure; the names have been frequently changed, and there are a number 

 of synonyms. Loudon places the species under the genus Jatropha. and 

 makes the cassava plant ./. manihot ; but I'ohl jdaces tlie two species under 

 manihot, as follows : Manihot utilissima, }f. a/n, regarding all others as forms 

 or varieties of these two. 



Manihot \i> a name applied by the natives. Ctillissima, the superlative of 

 the Latin adjective utilis, signifies " very useful " Tapioca is a name in the 

 Brazilian native dialect for the starch or substance prepared from the root uf 



Manihot ttilissima (Tapioca), 

 in shape, and charged with a 



